girlgeniusfandomcom-20200214-history
Talk:Geisterspeak/Mad
Couple of gentle suggestions: # This is not a forum # The table structure used for expletives in general seems apt GEARZarchne 16:47, 28 November 2008 (UTC) Mad idea here: could Geisterspeak and Skifandrian be the same language? Or at least be very close, like say Elvish and Drow in the Forgotten Realms - i.e. "good" and "evil" dialects of the same language? When the Geisterdamen attack the Rescue Party in the Sturmhalten sewers, they charge into battle with the cry "Tokkah ni!". When the Baron has pretty much defeated Zeetha, and holds a knife to her throat, her tells her: "Ni Tok!" So, I´d assume "tok" means "to fight", the "-kah", or duplication of the consonant plus "-ah", suffix indicates plural. "Ni" indicates the imperative, meaning "do it" when it follows the verb and "don´t do it" or "stop it" when it precedes the verb. Then, "Tokkah ni!" means "Fight!" or "Attack!" and "Ni tok!" means "Stop fighting!" or "Surrender!". -Sir Chaos 17:16, 22 February 2009 (UTC) :It's possible. Zeetha could confirm it for us if she encountered some geisterdamen. Klaus probably knows already, but he tends to keep his own counsel. --DryBrook 19:40, 22 February 2009 (UTC) ::Here are pages to discuss the Skiff language and possible translations and theories. --DryBrook 20:24, 22 February 2009 (UTC) :::It's not a new idea, but it hasn't been pursued. Suggesting Mad:Unified Geister-Skiff vocabulary(page removed 2014), which should have an entry for each individual word. Note that Klaus may not have encountered any Geisters (except maybe fnord), so I wouldn't necessarily presume he knows anything about their language a priori. ⚙Zarchne 17:51, 23 February 2009 (UTC) ::::Wouldn't it surprise you if Klaus, in all his empire-building and empire-policing, had never encountered a Geisterdamen? Surely he'd have been curious enough to investigate. (Pure speculation, though.) --DryBrook 19:26, 23 February 2009 (UTC) :::::Actually it wouldn´t surprise me very much... not if the Geisterdamen had been staying out of his sight, probably aided by the Knights of Jove. Remember, the Geisterdamen are legendary figures to most people. They probably did not appear very often. And with all the weird stuff loose in the Wastelands, why single out the Geisterdamen as worty of investigation? -Sir Chaos 21:01, 23 February 2009 (UTC) ::::: What he said: no. If Klaus had gotten his hands on a Geister I expect he'd have a much better... hm.⚙Zarchne 01:31, 24 February 2009 (UTC) Can it be translated? Is it known wether or not the whole "language" is supposed to make sense? Is this page all of research there is? Failed attempts or such?--Cyberman TM 18:04, June 20, 2010 (UTC) : A couple of good questions. I suspect there isn't a complete language, but there may be a framework for the syntax and a partial dictionary. This seems like a great question to ask for the next interview with a Foglio. (I'm ashamed I didn't think of that question when someone on the Yahoo group asked for interview questions a couple of months ago.) : I think there were some translation attempts in forums, and also in the Yahoo group — I don't know if information from all those attempts was moved here. : Activity on this topic comes and goes. I suspect there will be a resurgence when we next see Geisters. That group heading off to form an army will cause trouble some day (hopefully after Agatha has the castle well enough to take care of itself). : Thank you for the translation thoughts you added today. They seem sound enough to go in the table on the main page. (And welcome to the wiki.) Argadi 20:50, June 20, 2010 (UTC) "zo" - pronoun? "she"? (Not sure if it belongs here. But I think it's best to start here.) I don't have any proof for it, but it seems to me that "zo" is another pronoun - meaning "she/her". It's used in V/72, one of the Geisterdamen repeats a statement from Vrin, as question, adding "zo?" as if saying "She?". It's also used in IV/78 where one of them seems to explain that Agatha and Lars are actors. The whole dialogue in the third panel looks as if she's explaining the idea of actors to the other, using the foreign word "actor" as last resort.--Cyberman TM 18:04, June 20, 2010 (UTC) : The entry on "za" notes that it has been used as an exclamation and finds that inconsistent with its use as a definite article. However, English uses the words "this" and "that" both as demonstrative adjectives and demonstrative pronouns. You can say "that book" or point at the book and say "That!" In German, the definite articles "der," "das," and "die" can also be used as demonstrative pronouns. It's legitimate to exclaim "Der!" when referring emphatically to a person. "Zo" and "za" might have a similar dual use. Madfilkentist (talk) 22:14, July 6, 2017 (UTC) fig - think/figure? Pure speculation, of course. And probably influenced by the similarity. But it seems to fit quite often.--Cyberman TM 18:04, June 20, 2010 (UTC) no "to be" ? Since I'm not a linguist, I'm merely going by gut feeling so it's easy to be wrong for me :-) Perhaps what I'm writing is obvious, but until I do, I won't know. I have the feeling, perhaps influenced by learning Klingon, that there is no "to be" in that language. Rather, it's mixed into the pronouns. The words "za 'actors'" are a good example - it only works if the "are" is already assumed. Also, I mostly try to think up what could have been said and then re-translate by substituting words. Very primitive of course. But to be honest I doubt it's anything more complex. --Cyberman TM 19:29, June 24, 2010 (UTC) Perhaps the opposite -- if the Geisterdame spoke Latin, she might well have said Sunt actores, "They are actors", with the pronoun implied by the verb, rather than the other way 'round.Akitsumikami (talk) 17:33, April 7, 2013 (UTC)